1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to maintenance systems and more particularly, to maintenance systems for managing and administering aircraft maintenance.
2. Description of Related Art
Aviation maintenance requires a massive effort to keep maintenance records and schedule maintenance. To this day, paper systems are used.
Adequate maintenance records must be kept for the aviation authority under which the aircraft is registered. For example, an aircraft registered by the United States of America must keep records according to the rules of the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”). Furthermore, an aircraft registered for commercial use with the FAA must comply to Federal Air Regulations (“FAR”) for commercial aircraft, whilst those aircraft registered for private use must comply to the regulations for private aircraft. An aircraft maintenance facility must understand and comply with the maintenance and record-keeping rules according to the registered nationality of the aircraft and the use for which it is registered. Add to this the different maintenance schedules set by aircraft operators and there exists an extremely complex set of rules governing the maintenance of each aircraft. For this reason, many maintenance facilities specialize in few carriers and aircraft types.
Additionally, for a maintenance facility at an international airport, where aircraft from many different international operators may require maintenance, either scheduled or unscheduled, that fall under additional maintenance requirements. For example, in addition to the maintenance schedules and requirements required by aircraft operators, the maintenance requirements of the governmental jurisdiction from which the plane originates must be followed. Additionally, even the aircraft manufacturer has a unique set of maintenance procedures and requirements. Accordingly, even knowing what must be done to comply with all requirements and regulations is a matter that only experts may resolve. Additionally, because an aircraft flies across the world, a maintenance shop can never know with certainty what the maintenance history of a plane is unless that plane carries its maintenance records with it. Thus, in today's day and age of computer sophistication, aircraft maintenance is still monitored on paper-based systems.
More specifically, the maintenance tasks are usually recorded using paper-based work cards. These work cards are controlled by a supervisor and the progress of the task is tracked thereon the card. On completion of the task, the work is checked by qualified personnel, and if satisfactory, approved with a signature on the card.
The amount of labor for the task may be taken from the card and billed to the customer accordingly. However, a problem exists that in less busy periods some workers may record their hours worked by picking a card from a rack and embellishing it with additional labor time. For example, an entire day might be charged to one or two charge codes because those charge codes represent the only tasks addressed that day. If those tasks typically take only several hours, then two much time is charged simply because things are slow that day. Using such a paper system is open to dishonest behavior since it is difficult to verify actual labor for a particular task.
Additionally, the handling of the paper-based work records can be inconvenient. Each aircraft requires a repository to store work records for the life of the aircraft. With many aircraft having an operational life exceeding well over thirty years, this is an arduous task and requires an increasingly copious amount of physical space as the aircraft ages. Additionally, it requires personnel to maintain and archive the records appropriately. All of these factors add to the cost of operating and maintaining an aircraft.
Should work card get lost, destroyed or damaged in the maintenance facility, then it may be replaced by making another. While this is inconvenient, it is necessary to maintain the paper records for the aircraft.
Accordingly, there is a need for a maintenance system operating under the required regulations, whilst managing the maintenance tasks for a given aircraft. It would be further desirable to store records of the maintenance tasks in the maintenance system. It would also be desirable for the maintenance system to manage and assist in other aspects of the maintenance operations such as, but not limited to, personnel, supply management, payroll and auditing.